The Fast and the Furry Horse: Mtl street racers busted in 1914

Photo re-enactment of police busting street racers in 1914

  A longstanding local tradition of street racing in the West End disappeared 100 years ago this month when cops started cracking down on the hellbent-for-glory riders.
  The practice had been common on Upper Lachine Rd – (now a combination of what's now Upper Lachine and  St. James St in the West End) for at least 50 years.
  Not unlike the current breed of street racers, these guys would meet Sundays and just test who had the fastest horse.
  But the road had become less rural so it was deemed unsafe and uncivil.
   Chief Campeau and Captain Marwick of the NDG police station decided to put a stop to it on Feb. 15, 1914 so they headed down in the afternoon and watched helplessly as one group of three racers just ran by at high speed. They then blocked the road to the next set of racers, who were running eastward towards the city. One of the three got by but the other two were forced to ride up to the NDG police station to be arrested .
   Then came another race involved six to eight horses and their riders behind them on carts. A couple escaped and turned back and likely returned downtown along Pullman.
   But forever after that day the horse racing tradition of the West End came to an end.
   (Those busted were: Joseph Jeannote 112 Lafontaine Park, Louis Langevin 228 Lafontaine Park, Wildy Ladouceur of 297 Gatineau in CDN and Adelard Sanscartier 403 St. Denis)